Horace Binney's Pamphlets [pp. 641-647]

Horace Binney's Pamphlets.
this. No other judiciary ever entertained questions of such
magnitude; involving, as they often do, fundamental political
rights that are hotly contested by infuriated national parties;
and at other times, involving pecuniary interests of amounts
astounding to those who only look at the common transactions
of courts. The Dred Scot is a case of the first kind; and a
case before the Supreme Court, at its last term, presenting the
question, whether the rolling stock on railroads is liable to
execution for the debts of the company, involving, as it did,
millions of dollars, is one of the second kind. But a still more
portentous class of cases in the Supreme Court, at the last term,
were claims against the United States Government, involving
millions of dollars' worth of land in California, founded on pretended grants from the Mexican government before the cession
of California. These claims were attempted to be supported
by forged public documents, forged public seals, and the perjured testimony of professional witnesses, and had been fraudulently sold, by those who got them up, for large sums of money
to those who prosecuted them before the court. The claimants
could, in the aggregate, have afforded to give millions of dollars
in bribes to the judges. The court decided against the claims.
Similar cases will, from time to time, come before the court, from
newly acquired territory. Let the nation ponder these things!
If our institutions are to be preserved, it must be done by the
law administered through an enlightened and upright Bench
and Bar. The Bench and the Bar must stand or fall together.
They are mutually dependent. There is not an enlightened
citizen who believes in the wisdom of an elective and re-eligible
judiciary for a term of years; and yet, amidst universal condemnation, it is becoming a universal policy. " Our lawyers
(says an eminent English judge) read with admiration, and consult with the greatest respect, the text-books of American
lawyers, and the judgments of American judges; and our
legal education and system of study have greatly profited by
our emulation of that broader and more varied character which
the peculiar circumstances of America necessarily tend to create." How long will this high and acceptable praise be
merited, if the present progress of decadence in the legal profession be not arrested?
1860.]
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